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My dermatologist prescribed accutane last July for my

Hello, my dermatologist prescribed...

Hello, my dermatologist prescribed accutane last July for my Roscea. It was a light dose 20 mg daily. I was on it for less than 4 months and I experienced a fair amount of hair loss. It looks like some has recovered but seems to of stopped. My new dermatologist has said it will grow back but it has been almost 7 months. I’m a 68 yr old Male and I’m concerned.

Doctor's Assistant: How long have you been using Accutane? Any improvements so far?

Experience: MBBS, MD, MCCM. Currently working in Critical Care Medicine with 10 year experience in Medicine

Verified

Hi,

Welcome to JA and thanks for this question. I'm sorry to hear about your symptoms. Actually your dermatologist is right, usually, hair loss caused by Accutane does recover however it can take several months to a couple of years for that to happen. The timeframe varies for each patient as each patient has a different recovery rate in this regard. Now the important thing to note here is that whether you developed hair follicle loss or just thinning of the hair in certain locations. The difference between the two is that if a hair follicle is completely lost from the roots then the chances of recovery are low however if the hair thinned out in a manner that the roots remained intact then yes recovery is always possible.

I would recommend waiting for another 5 months and observing whether the situation is improving or not if there is absolutely NO improvement in the next 5 months, then I would recommend a trial of minoxidil (Rogaine) applied on the area to improve the hair recovery process. And if that does not improve the hair loss then we can look into other therapies.

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